Jericho Details Journey From WWE To All Elite Wrestling

Chris Jericho spoke in-depth on the latest edition of his ‘Talk Is Jericho’ about his journey from leaving WWE, going to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and arriving in All Elite Wrestling.

Jericho provides a detailed look inside the journey that brought him to AEW, including information about how Tony Khan provided the plane he flew in at All IN, pitching a WWE vs. NJPW match to Vince McMahon, and receiving an offer from Impact Wrestling.

Chris Jericho’s Journey From The WWE To All Elite Wrestling

Chris Jericho’s WWE Contract Expires – May 2017

Chris Jericho’s contract with WWE expires, he has injury angle with Kevin Owens to be written out of future stories.

Don Calls Calls And Pitches New Japan Summer 2017

Jericho receives call from Don Callis. He asks of he wants to setup a match with New Japan Pro Wrestling against Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome in January.

Jericho Meets With New Japan Officials Fall 2017

Jericho meets with New Japan officials in New York City. Afterwards he speaks with Vince McMahon and lets him know that he will be doing the match against Omega at Tokyo Dome. Vince McMahon is pleased for him and wishes him well.

Jericho Arrives in New Japan Pro Wrestling – Winter 2017

Chris Jericho does angle with Kenny Omega in Japan to setup Alpha vs. Omega match in January

Jericho vs. Omega happens at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Jericho pitches an appearance at New Year’s Dash to attack Tanahashi. Gedo says he should attack Naito. His appearance at New Year’s Dash was a ‘freebie’ according to Jericho.

Vince McMahon Calls, Pitches RAW 25 – January 2018

Vince McMahon calls Jericho and asks why he attacked Naito, and thought he only had one match setup. He then asked Jericho to appear at RAW 25 as a special guest. Jericho agreed to appear at RAW 25 under one condition, it won’t be in the ring.

McMahon Pitches Greatest Royal Rumble – Spring 2018

Jericho and New Japan iron out a 3 match deal. Vince McMahon calls Jericho asking him to be at the Greatest Royal Rumble. Jericho says it’s one of the top offers he received as far as a payday goes, and agrees to a match with The Undertaker. When Jericho tells McMahon he has a 3 match deal with New Japan, McMahon doesn’t seem to pleased. Jericho receives a text back 3 hours later stating his match is now off, and he will simply be in the Rumble. McMahon says the Prince of Saudi Arabia wants Rusev vs. The Undertaker.

Jericho wins Intercontinental Championship from Naito. Jericho then pitches an idea to Vince McMahon stating he would love to do a New Japan vs. WWE match at Summerslam. He wanted to have a Champion vs. Champion match pitting himself vs. Seth Rollins. Vince wasn’t sure if it would work, and Jericho explained that Harold Meij, who is running New Japan wants to expand, and they could work something out. Jericho said they could have had a DQ winner so nobody loses their title. Vince did not call him back after he pitched the idea.

WWE Passes On Jericho Cruise – Summer 2018

Jericho was working on it for 3 years. He wanted to hire a wrestling company to book all the matches. His original pitch was for NXT to have matches on the cruise, but the WWE passed on it. He spoke to Ring Of Honor, and they agreed to handle the wrestling portion of the cruise.

Jericho Becomes Friends With The Elite – Summer 2018

The Young Bucks were the first to agree to work his cruise, followed by Cody. He began a group text with them all, and eventually became friends.

Tony Khan Enters The Picture – Summer 2018

Jericho’s agent Barry Bloom gave him a call, and said Tony Khan is starting his own wrestling company, and wants to speak with him. Jericho says he hears stuff like this all the time, guys who want to start wrestling companies. Jericho spoke on how many people have tried to start companies in the past as a get rich quick scheme, or even a scam.Jericho agrees to talk to him, and says he won’t work there, and use it just as negotiations, or even to provide advice.

Cody Wants Him For ALL IN – Summer 2018

Jericho hears about how well ALL IN is selling, and receives a call from Cody Rhodes. Cody asks Jericho is there is anyway he could work the ALL IN event. Jericho said he could not due to his Fozzy tour. He also mentioned that he he doesn’t work US dates outside of the WWE.

Vince Wants Jericho For Crown Jewel – Summer 2018

Vince McMahon calls and said he really needs Chris Jericho for the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Jericho says he has a show in Osaka Japan, and can only make it work if he has a private jet take him from Riyadh to Osaka. He asked how much he is getting paid, and Vince said he would get back to him, but never called him back.

Jericho Appears At ALL In With The Help Of Tony Khan – Summer 2018

Jericho and Cody continue to talk, and they setup an angle to build it up for the cruise. It was Matt Jackson’s idea to have Jericho dress up as Pentagon Jr, and attack Kenny Omega. Jericho then reveals that he arrived to ALL IN on Tony Khan’s private jet.Jericho reveals that he had a meeting with Tony Khan for four hours a few weeks earlier. He wanted to hear Khan’s thoughts on his company. He then realized that although Khan didn’t have any experience running a pro wrestling company, he had passion. Tony and his father never ran a wrestling company, but do run a Football Club in London, and a Football Team in Jacksonville. He says that they know entertainment.

Tony Khan Makes Offer To Chris Jericho – Fall 2018

The original offer Tony Khan offered Chris was a “real NHL level offer”. Chris said it blew his mind, which he never got before. He also knew with the money WWE has, they could match it. Jericho then notes he started to negotiate, and thinks about working outside of the WWE in the U.S. He said wants wanted to send a message to the WWE.

Chris Jericho’s Cruise – Fall 2018

Chris Jericho then hosted his week long cruise in October. He really was impressed with the way it turned out, and had a great time working with the Young Bucks. He says he saw the numbers it drew with FiteTV on iPPV, and was really impressed. He then states he is really enjoying what he’s doing.

Second Thoughts On Returning To WWE – Fall 2018

Jericho said he is having a great time working outside the WWE with New Japan, and with the success of the cruise, he thinks will he actually enjoy going back to the WWE. He begins to think how high on the WWE card would he get. He said it was fun being a part of the main event in New Japan. He said his name value now may be bigger than its ever been. He wanted to fulfil what he wanted to do, and began to really think on what plans he has for the future. He thinks about what he could do in the future in New Japan, or go back to the WWE. He thinks if he goes back to the WWE, it would be “slaughtered”. He said the payoff with Kevin Owens, the match was second on the card, which he wasn’t too pleased about.

Jericho said his character was reinvented, most noticeably the look. He said if he went back to the WWE, he wouldn’t want to be “the list guy”. He said if he goes back to the WWE, and doesn’t have the list, people may be angry.

Impact Wrestling Makes Offer – Fall 2018

Jericho then began to praise Impact Wrestling, and how Don and Scott have turned the company around. He met with them while in Toronto with Fozzy, and Jericho thought long and hard about doing shows for Impact Wrestling. He mentioned Impact Wrestling did make him a nice offer for working for them. They were going to spend some money on Chris Jericho. He said they had a few good matches planned, including Jericho vs. Sami Calihan, Jericho vs. Rich Swann, Jericho vs. Johnny Impact.

Tony Returns With Huge Offer – Winter 2018

Tony Khan came back in the picture and offered Chris Jericho the biggest offer he has ever had in his career. He said he had to stop and think if he wanted to make the jump. He said it was really hard, and began reminiscing about back when he left WCW. He asked himself how much further he could go with the “rules”. He said in WCW he wasn’t earmarked to be a top guy there. He said it wasn’t hard to step away from WCW to goto WWE. He asked himself if he could walk away from WWE and go to AEW. He said after some thoughts, he made his decision.

He said AEW is giving him respect, and in WWE it doesn’t matter what he does. In AEW it matters what he does, and he has to be his best. He said he needs to use his 30 years experience to help build the company.

Chris Tells Vince McMahon About His AEW Offer – Winter 2018

He said he spoke to Vince McMahon, and he feels both sides were happy, and they had closure. He said Vince McMahon is his friend, and he respects him a lot. He said the last thing he wanted to do was any sort of “screwjob” or “stabbing in the back”. He said Vince knew before anyone else he was going to All Elite Wrestling. He also stated that he is now finished with WWE, and has a 3 year deal with All Elite Wrestling, but can work for New Japan.

AEW Doesn’t Want To Be Beat The WWE

AEW does not want to beat the biggest wrestling company in the world, the WWE. They want to give the fans an alternative.

AEW Rally In Jacksonville – January 2019

The Bucks, Cody and Tony are the only people who knew he was going to be at the ‘Double Or Nothing’ rally in Jacksonville, FL. He gives a brief rundown of what happened at the All Elite Wrestling Rally. He said it was “really crazy” with all the pyro and smoke. He wanted to arrive as a highly touted free agent, similar to how a football or hockey star when they sign a major deal.He said when the pyro was going off, he envisioned Vince in a meeting saying “Dammit would you shut that pyro off, I’m in a meeting”